With little more than a week remaining in the Association of Alumni election voting period, the race has become more divided after news of continuing legal action against the Board of Trustees. The alumni lawsuit which was dismissed in January and is being appealed by its plaintiffs to the New Hampshire Supreme Court has split the competing slates along political lines, with the "Unity" slate rejecting the suit unequivocally and the "Dartmouth United" petition slate encompassing a variety of opinions.
The lawsuit, filed by a group of College alumni, challenges the Board's 2007 decision to increase the number of Board-selected trustees. The group contends that an agreement made in 1891 guarantees parity between alumni-elected and Board-selected trustees.
Incumbent Association presidential candidate John Mathias '69 told The Dartmouth he was "disappointed" upon hearing the news of the appeal, while petition presidential candidate J. Michael Murphy '61 said he understands the plaintiffs' motivations in filing an appeal.
"We understand [that] the plaintiffs believe very strongly in what they're doing," Murphy said. "I guess they just want to satisfy themselves that they've exhausted every possibility, and this would be the last logical step."
Opinions vary widely among members of Murphy's "Dartmouth United" petition slate, he said, including some who disapprove of the lawsuit and others who understand the decision to legally challenge the trustees' 2007 decision to end parity on the Board.
Murphy added that despite their views, no Association petition candidates "had anything to do with the Association lawsuit or this individual lawsuit."
Mathias, on the other hand, emphasized that his "Unity" slate has "rejected" any form of litigation against the College in order to restore parity.
Both slate leaders said their opponents had been unduly emphasizing the lawsuit during the current election.
"We want to move away from the issues that [the "Dartmouth United" slate] consistently brings up," Mathias said. "They're campaigning as if ending the lawsuit was a bad thing, and that's a huge difference between us."
Murphy likewise criticized the incumbent slate for its focus on the ongoing litigation.
"The other slate is trying to make an issue of the lawsuit in this election when it doesn't apply," Murphy said. "How many elections do there have to be before they drop the issue?"
Both rosters have expressed their views through various communications to alumni over the election period.
Mathias's slate is engaging in e-mail and word-of-mouth campaigning, he said, while "Dartmouth United" is in the process of sending a postcard mailing to thousands of alumni, according to Murphy.
The postcard was sent to the limited mailing list to which the slate has access, Murphy said.
"We can't reach everybody the way the other slate can," Murphy said. "We have a great handicap of trouble with mailing list access [but] we do the best we can."
Mathias said that his slate does not have access to College mailing lists, contrary to what some people have contended in the past.
Although the "bills" for the mailing have not yet been paid, Murphy said he hopes John MacGovern '80 of the Hanover Institute will cover some of those bills once the election has ended.
In an e-mail to The Dartmouth on Thursday, MacGovern said that he was unwilling to "go into operational details" of the Institute when asked to confirm Murphy's statement about the mailing's funding.
"As is the purpose of the Hanover Institute, we raise money from alumni to support good Dartmouth men and women, independent candidates running for office in Dartmouth elections," MacGovern said. "Money has been received for that purpose and will be spent on that purpose."
Dartmouth Undying, a nonprofit organization that has supported Alumni Council and Association-nominated candidates in recent years, has sent two mailings on behalf of the Mathias slate, according to Martha Beattie '76, one of Dartmouth Undying's leaders during the current election period.
The organization, which has already sent two mailings before and during the election period, Beattie said, will likely send a third before the voting period comes to a close. Each mailing, which costs "about $30,000," according to Beattie, reaches about 30,000 College alumni.
